Ār (Eir)

Ār icon art by myself.

Ār is the OE counterpart of Eir. In the Prose Edda, Eir is cited as a Goddess who is a great physician [1]. Her name is also included in a list of Valkyrie names [2]. In the Fjolsvinnsmal, She is listed as one of several maidens who serve the Goddess Menglöð, who if offered to will protect men from danger and pestilence [3].

The University of Texas Indo-European lexicon lists Eir as related to the ON verb eira, to spare or protect, and noun æra, glory or honour [4]. The related OE words include ār, meaning both glory or honour and kindness [5]. This is the word I have chosen for the name of my Eir counterpart.

On “empaths”, Barnum statements, & coping strategies

The web of wyrd connects us all: humans, Gods, Ancestors, wights. Photo by Jack van der Spoel on Unsplash

A while back I was scrolling my Instagram feed and came across an infographic-style post by a popular (hundreds of thousands of follows) witchcraft/occult account I follow, entitled “Empath Signs”. I’ve had what you might call problems with the way the witchcraft/occult and adjacent spheres discuss “Empaths” and I’m going to use the six signs given in this post (which has over 9.5k likes at time of writing) to discuss why.

Disclaimer: this is not intended as a denunciation or personal attack on the Instagram user whose post I’m addressing, or indeed anyone else. I happened to see this specific post on my feed but there are countless others on any social media platform. I am more interested in discussing what I think are harmful ideas and discourse in the community than I am in condemning individuals. If anyone has the urge after reading this to harass anyone making these kinds of posts, don’t. Now with that out of the way let’s get into it.

Devotionals, and Expansion.

At the moment, I honour and work with Odin, Frigga, Skadi, Freyja and Sif, as well as the vaettir — the land-spirits related to the city I live & study in, and the city I grew up in — and my ancestors. They each have a day of the week dedicated to Them, a day of devotionals for Them. It’s been a very powerful way for me to connect to Them, to maintain a personal relationship with Them, and keep my practice intertwined with my daily life.

However. I’ve been having an itch to start adding Deities to my roster, to start honouring Frigga’s handmaidens, Loki, Idunna, Thor, Hel … ever since I first started to get to know Odin last year I have basically been on what you might call a slippery slope towards honouring Everyone. And my dilemma is thusly: how do I balance this with time and keeping a depth and strength to my practice, without losing the intensely personal nature of it so far?

As with everything in Paganism, the only way to find out is to try.